bUT My rESalE vAlUe!
Good point. If your car is a crazy color it’s resale value will drop
Not always. If you keep that car in good condition and it ends up being a desirable color it it could be considered rare by resale time, you’re just rolling the dice when you buy it with that strategy compared to a more common/basic color.
That, and many of these cars wouldn’t last long enough for the paint to fade from UV. Your yellow car turning beige wasn’t a concern if it wasn’t going to reach 100,000.
Are you inplying these older cars weren’t intended to last longer than 100k because I’d wager most of the cars in the top image at least doubled that before going to scrap.
Problem was mostly rust because they used unprotected steel without any zink coating. In a wet country that would damage the frame and chassis within a few years, and sooner or later you end up patching one hole after the other. It’s even worse when they use salt on the roads in winter.
I watch some car restoration channel on YouTube. Some old cars look excellent at first, untill they lift it up and the floor plate or any mounts crumble into dust because some water was leaking inside the door frame, into the trunk or some hidden corner.
Curious how old you are, because until this century, a car with 100,000 on the odometer was considered a piece of crap no one in their right mind would buy. Powertrain warranties of 50,000 were pretty nice in the 90s and when 100,000 came out people were astounded. 3 years/36K was standard warranty for everything else.
SOURCE: Worked Nissan consumer affairs, late 90s.
Lol, I haven’t had a car with <100k miles on it in close to 5-6 years
Car colour can also affect how much you pay for insurance
Also red cars have higher insurance premiums.
Note to self, car insurance is run by orks from 40k…
Because painting things red makes them go faster.
Not just the color. Each make and model used to look distinct and unique. Now they all have the same vague SUV shape. It makes sense aerodynamics and safety standards are a thing but it still feels so corporate and almost dystopian.
But SUVs are neither aerodynamic nor safe (for others)…*
*In comparison with normal cars.
There are also things like safety standards and whatnot, there’s more nuance here beyond some shape conspiracy lol
safety standards are bs, tho. they still say more blinding headlights are safer than less blinding.
They typically look like a mildly used bar of soap on wheels.
There are far more sedan shapes over SUV ones on the road, but with that said I agree with your reasoning. It’s natural that the most efficient shapes are adopted en masse so everyone can benefit. Same with other things like safety standards/regulations.
I can’t remember which car magazine did it, but about 6-8 years ago, the cover was a profile of every crossover in the US market. I was able to pick out the Honda but couldn’t tell any of the others apart.
Aerodynamics and safety get everyone to a generally uniform shape, but then they focus group it to death.
Peak automotive engineering!
There used to be a sense of whimsy and fun in stuff.
Yes.
Sick of the gray in cars, clothing, buildings, etc. etc. etc.
Well, gray and depressing does fit the times.
Everyone wants a car that blends in so that they are less of a target for cops.
Part of why I drive a Volvo.
If you see a Volvo speeding you think “Gee, that doctor must be in a big hurry”
Oh, that’d be an interesting study I’d read about! Any sociology majors out there who need a thesis? lol
Not me! I’ll take a flashy sports car over a boring beige box any day of the week.
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“Mr. Moneybags”? LMAO I can easily name 5 excellent, reliable sports cars you can use as a daily driver for under $10K:
- Nissan 350Z/Infiniti G35
- Mazda Miata
- Genesis Coupe
- Civic Si
- VW GTI
My GTI was good at hiding from cops until I got my exhaust.
Worth it.
That’s apparently apocryphal. The rate of pullover tracks with the most common car color (currently white). Driver behavior (speeding, illegal turning, etc) and other outstanding features (lapsed registration, broken tail light) are the most common proximate causes for a pull over.
Race red mustang gt. I’ll take the heat off y’all.
Proudly owns a blue car in a sea of boring.
You could also get factory colors “custom”. What was available at the dealership was one thing, but they had a host of other color options you could special order. Like upgrading from an AM radio to AM/FM Cassette. You just had to wait for the factory to do a run of that option before your car would get shipped. More options were a la carte and you weren’t forced into trim packages like today that are like cable tv packages - pay for a bunch of shit you don’t want to get the one or two options you do. Want AWD? Sure! But you have to take “premium sound”, floor mats, cargo separator, and exterior trim packages too.
All the crazy colors and styles originally happened to sell “self expression” because the culture was becoming more anti consumption. Advertisements for most things used to be more matter-of-fact, then they started focussing on manipulating emotions to sell more shit. I guess now the culture is more pro-consumption and status-obsessed, so conformity is what sells now.
I read a while ago that people are sharing cars more and more. While someone may love a hot yellow, their partner may not, so they both settle for a grey. The market has gone from “I love it!” to “I don’t hate it…”
Blame this on the car insurance companies. They claim that certain car colors are less likely to be in a wreck.
Also blame car manufacturers. Some colors cost more than others. Check the sticker price next time you’re in the market.
That’s more like 1974 than 1980.
What you miss is the oversaturated color in earlier photography.
And the desaturated second picture. I’m not saying the point isn’t valid, but it’s certainly been artificially made here.
Yup
45 years of neoliberal nosediving. Kills all emotion, passion, and personality in pursuit of money.
My current car is bright red. I bought it used without consideration to the color. That’s been the case for every car I’ve owned. I’ve had orange, metallic beige (I think Honda called it “Champagne”) three times, forest green twice, silver, and burgundy. I’ve never had blue, black, gray, or white.
If I got to pick, I think I’d choose candy apple red, burgundy metallic, or a deep cobalt blue metallic. I liked the green one okay, but I’m not a big fan of green.
Not sure if it is still the case, but back in '96 when I learned to drive, I was told that insurance companies charge more for red and black cars, because they get pulled over more frequently than other colors.
I’ve heard of that for “arrest-me red,” but for black too?
I’ve never wanted to buy one of the cars it is on but as a colour, I really like Mazda’s “Soul Red Crystal Metallic”
What’s with the melty slate colors lately?
They make me think of colored clay.
